Hezbollah supporters protest Ortagus' remarks outside airport as Aoun distances himself

A number of Hezbollah supporters started gathering Friday outside Beirut’s airport for a sit-in protesting the anti-Hezbollah remarks that U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus voiced from Baabda after her meeting with President Joseph Aoun.

“The Lebanese Army has reinforced its deployment outside the airport,” the National News Agency said.

NNA added that the situation was normal at the airport and that the protesters clarified that their demo is "not against President Joseph Aoun, who is the president of entire Lebanon, but rather against Ortagus' statements that provoked a large segment of the Lebanese people."

The Lebanese Presidency’s press office had earlier announced that “some of what Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus said from Baabda reflects her viewpoint and the Presidency is not concerned with it.”

“We are grateful to our ally Israel for defeating Hezbollah,” Ortagus said in a press conference in Baabda following her meeting with Aoun. “It is thanks to the Lebanese President Aoun and the Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam and everyone in this government who is committed to an end of corruption, who is committed to reforms and who is committed to making sure that Hezbollah is not a part of the new government in any form,” she added.

"The end of Hezbollah's reign of terror in Lebanon and around the world has started and it's over," she stressed.